HDR

A few more shots from the day spent exploring the abandoned steel mill…

The light on the day was pretty perfect, streaming through all the holes in the steel cladding of the buildings, and that was fortunate given the utter lack of lighting or power within the buildings themselves. It sure was extremely dark in places, which the shots belie. Sometimes the only way to focus was with the aid of torchlight.

Looking forward to the next trip, that’s for sure. Someday… soon… hopefully…

I have to confess that there’s little that appeals to me more than wandering around an old abandoned steel mill with camera and tripod, spare batteries and cards, a working flash-light and my own never ending curiosity. Especially when there’s some pretty amazing light streaming through the holes in the walls and roof.

The pictures seriously do NOT give an accurate idea of exactly how dark it was in there though, and trying to navigate between various levels in almost total darkness was decidedly entertaining… especially when venturing right up on top of the roof!!.. Ladders and ascents not for the feint hearted, especially with all the necessary camera gear in tow.

The doorway shown above, at the end of the narrow walkway was the one that led out on to a narrow platform before the final ladder to the roof, and maybe gives a better idea of how dark it actually was. Fun fun fun :)

Rumour is that there’s a possible buyer for the place though, so maybe this was my final abandoned adventure there, unless I manage to squeeze in another one obviously. Still have a few shots left to post at least. :)

This is St Catherine’s Oratory, better known as the “Pepperpot”. It’s a medieval lighthouse first lit way back in 1328.

As for the serene part though, this was most definitely NOT. To reach said lighthouse was probably only about a mile from the car park, but the car park was at the bottom of the downs, and the pepperpot at the top of the downs. The climb must have easily been 45° !!, or at least that’s what my knees were telling me.. If that wasn’t bad enough though, this particular evening was a tad bit breezy… Breezy enough that I had to physically hang on to my tripod to prevent it blowing away whilst taking the shots.. I kid you not, and no more than a few miles from here they recorded 82mph gusts later that night.. It was so strong that my youngest WAS actually blown clean over.. Not that I laughed at all… Strangely enough though, she wasn’t too keen on my holding on the the cords of her jacket, and flying her down the hill like a kite !!.. No pleasing some kids !!.. I thought they all loved kite flying !!..

A shot from a rather exceptional day out today with old friends, and also making of new friends too… such as the urbex legend that is Andre Govia… All in all a mixed day of sorts.. Always good to be out with old friends, always good to meet new friends, but sad to think that this was probably the last visit to Lillesdon School for Girls, as it has now been purchased, and its precise future is pretty much unknown, other than it’s earmarked for development of apartments… Will they try to keep the building ??… I do hope so, as it would be such a shame to see a building of such ornate architecture demolished to make way for new, but it’s already cost someone £2.1 million ($3.3 million), and would likely cost as much again to renovate… We shall see…

And now for something a bit more… well.. Maybe “normal” isn’t quite the right phrase, but normal’er… or for me at least… Still one of my favourite urbex locations is this place… At least that is until we manage to get in to the next on the list of must do’s, without being caught… ;)

Funky Slug Photo’s on Flickr

For an alternative to the photography I have posted here, please also check out my Flickr website, where I go under the pseudonym of Funky Slug. Here you can preview a much larger selection of my work.